Wading

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The process of traversing through a body of water at a level shallow enough to allow upright movement and stability while often engaging in recreational or practical activities
2. The action of moving through water that is neither deep enough to swim in nor too shallow to affect one's balance, typically done for leisure or work purposes
3. The act of walking through water that is shallow enough to permit a person to stand and move without submerging, often for various recreational or occupational reasons

Etymology: "Wading" is simply the verb "wade" with the suffix "-ing" attached, so the interesting history lies mostly in the older parts of the word. The suffix traces back through Old English "-ende" and Proto-Germanic "-andz" to a Proto-Indo-European ending "-onts," which was a participle marker that gradually gave rise to the familiar "-ing" form in English. Over many centuries the ending was reshaped from "-ende" to "-ynge" and then to "-ing," so that the suffix you hear today is a worn-down descendant of an ancient participial ending. The base word "wade" is the older of the two, and it has a long, steady history in English, meaning to move through a substance that resists the body, with water being the most common example. Pairing it with "-ing" produces a form that names the activity itself, so "wading" can describe both an ongoing action and the act taken as a whole.

Synonyms: walking, strolling, trudging, ambling, treading

Antonyms: running, sprinting, skipping, flying, leaping